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#3218: Transcription of Letter from Sarah J. Bloom on behalf of Willa Cather to Leland Hayward, February 27, 1945

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copy Mr. Leland Hayward1 9200 Wilshire Boulevard Beverly Hills, California3
Dear Mr. Hayward:

I am taking care of Miss Cather's business correspondence, as she is now on her way to Mexico City4 and I will not be forwarding letters to her for some weeks.

Miss Cather has had very large offers from several producers for the right to film My Antonia5. We have had a great deal of correspondence on this subject, but she absolutely refuses to meet any proposition of this kind. She believes that any writing for the stage can be successfully reproduced by the cinema, but that a narrative which was written for the eye, and was meant to be read from the printed page, can not be successfully translated into a film. In this matter she is adamant. She has similarly rejected all propositions made to film Death Comes for the Archbishop6, My Mortal Enemy7, Lucy Gayheart8, and Sapphira and the Slave Girl9.

Very truly yours, Secretary10